Nauru has been in the news ever since the Pacific Solution began in 2001, but the history of the tiny island nation has been one of extraordinary waste. Now the expulsion of its chief justice has prompted new questions about the rule of law on the island, writes Keri Phillips.

Today Naruans are sick, impoverished and reliant on Australia's immigration detention centre for income, but they were once among the wealthiest people in the world. Had they been able to capitalise on the natural resources of their island, their story could have been very different.

The modern history of Nauru, a tiny speck in the South Pacific, begins at the turn of the 20th century with the discovery of phosphate. Phosphate is a fertiliser that encourages better root development, flowering and faster root growth.

The Nauruans are essentially a sick people, physically a sick people. They have astonishing rates of diabetes and heart conditions and obesity.

Michael Field, reporter

'Everybody wanted phosphate,' says Michael Field, a reporter who has covered the South Pacific for most of the past 35 years. 'And of course phosphate is also a part of the explosives industry and the world was arming up incredibly 100 years ago.'

At the time phosphate was discovered on Nauru, the island was a German protectorate. In 1914, after the outbreak of World War I, Nauru was captured by Australian troops. When the war ended Nauru was given in trust to Britain, Australia and New Zealand. These three governments created the British Phosphate Commission which took over the rights to phosphate mining.

During the Second World War, the Japanese occupied Nauru and its inhabitants suffered horribly. Some 1,200 Nauruans—two-thirds of the population—were deported to Micronesia to work as forced labour: 500 died from starvation or bombing. After the war, Nauru was made a UN trust territory under Australian administration. It became the world's smallest independent republic in 1968.

According to Tess Newton Cain, principal consultant at Devpacific, a research consultancy business focused on Pacific development and policy, among the biggest challenges newly-independent Nauru faced was having to pay to get its remaining phosphate deposits back.

'In order to take ownership of those resources the country was basically in debt from day one to the pre-existing countries and corporate interests that had owned and managed the mining,' she says. 'Then there was all the issues around setting up a new country and taking on its own administration and government, and Nauru has had a very turbulent political history post independence.'

Nonetheless, in the period following independence, Nauruans enjoyed enormous wealth. Yet despite the fact they knew that the phosphate would eventually run out, a series of unwise investments undermined the nation's economic future.

'A lot of money was invested in things which never actually turned out to work,' says Professor John Connell, head of the School of Geosciences at the University of Sydney. 'For example, buildings in overseas countries, like Nauru House in Melbourne, hotels in some countries, phosphate factories, curiously, in countries like India and the Philippines, most of which never really survived.'

Perhaps most expensive of all was Air Nauru, an airline operated by the government through the 70s and 80s. At its peak, Air Nauru had seven aircraft and could carry 10 per cent of the country's population at one time. Needless to say, its planes were often empty and it ran at an extraordinary loss.

The environmental effects of phosphate mining also took their toll on the island, according to Connell.

'The island is 21 square kilometres, which is quite small, about the size of an average university campus like Sydney or Melbourne, so it's a tiny island.'

'The effects of mining are very distinctive, because the phosphate develops within coral pinnacles, so you have to scoop the phosphate out from within the pinnacles themselves. So those scooped areas descend about three metres ... So it produces an extraordinary landscape which is visually quite dramatic and is totally useless for anything else.'

By the new millennium, Nauru had been reduced to an environmental wasteland, and declining phosphate prices and the government's financial mismanagement had combined to virtually bankrupt the island.

'The Nauruans are essentially a sick people, physically a sick people. They have astonishing rates of diabetes and heart conditions and obesity,' says Michael Field.

'They seem to have lost, although it could be recovered, many of the traditional skills that they had. The waters around Nauru are rich in fish and they could easily lead a healthy lifestyle. Their land before it was destroyed was very rich.'

'I don't mean it in an insulting fashion but what you see is a population of battered survivors who have gone through hell and are trying to maintain what living standard they have, in this particular case by taking money from Australia to hold asylum seekers.'

The Nauru detention centre opened in 2001 as a temporary measure to take refugees during the Tampa crisis, but became a permanent part of the Howard government's Pacific Solution. Asylum seekers taken there were to be processed under Australian law, and during the Howard years the vast majority of them were determined to be refugees and were settled in Australia. The centre was closed by Kevin Rudd after his election in 2007 but reopened again by Julia Gillard in 2012.

In the lead-up to last year's election, then Prime Minister Kevin Rudd introduced a change to the endpoint of the process, meaning that those who are determined to be refugees would not be settled in Australia, a policy continued by the Abbott government. Although living conditions have been condemned by the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, Nauru's regional processing centre has provided a boost to the economy.

'So the economy is functioning on one level,' says Newton Cain.

'In terms of a sustainable economy, Nauru is very vulnerable. If and when the [processing centre] closes it's hard to know what Nauru's next economic sustenance will be. There is a certain amount of money to be made in issuing of fishing licences, which Nauru does. There is still some money to be made in phosphate, there are some tailings and there are possible opportunities for further mining.'

'But life is tough for a lot of people. There are very few employment opportunities. The private sector is very, very small, to the point of being not much more than a few trade stores. You know, if you're trying to build a house on Nauru it's very hard to get access to a builder or an electrician or a plumber.

'Obviously that then creates a bit of a vicious cycle; because there are so few opportunities, there are very few incentives to get qualifications and be able to enter into employment because there's no point getting a qualification if there isn't going to be a job for you at the end.'

In areas like the legal sector Nauru employs expatriates, often Australians and New Zealanders, to keep the institutions of the state running because there is no one else to take on those roles. The judicial system is also substantially dependent on development assistance financing from Australia and New Zealand. So not only are the judicial officers largely Australian but also the entire judicial system is underpinned by funding from Australia and New Zealand.

In January Nauru expelled its only magistrate, Peter Law, and cancelled the visa of its chief justice, Geoffrey Eames. According to ANU's Kevin Boreham, the dispute had its origins in the Nauru government's desire to expel an Australian called Rod Henshaw who had previously had a position in the government.

'As I understand it, the resident magistrate had brought down an order halting that deportation and that was what led to the resident magistrate's expulsion and there seems to have been a concern that the Australian chief justice would support the resident magistrate's action.'

'So arising from this initial episode with Rod Henshaw there seems to have been a desire by the Nauru government to exercise control over the courts so the courts would not act contrary to what Nauru's government saw as being its own business,' he says.

According to Tess Newton Cain, it has got to the point where the rule of law no longer applies in Nauru.

'Whoever you are on Nauru, whether you are an asylum seeker, whether you are an Australian resident working for the regional processing centre or, more importantly, a citizen of Nauru, there is no guarantee that any of your legal rights and interests can be adequately protected within that jurisdiction.'

Comments (19)

keyboard warrior :

12 Mar 2014 8:28:40pm

What a total shame as to what has happened to Nauru. They dug up all their phosphate resources & shared the prosperity amongst their small population & now it has all gone. Nauru is only very small & there is no more land to dig up in view of future prosperity. Sure is a pity it ended up being a detention centre (prison). It would have been much more dignified if someone with dollars turned it into a equatorial pacific holiday resort with maybe a casino. A perfect & beautiful location.

Peter of Melbourne ®:

"among the biggest challenges newly-independent Nauru faced was having to pay to get its remaining phosphate deposits back."

rather than having the population rely on a casino to generate income would not a better alternative be to allow the population into Australia on working visa's and complete training if required?

If we can open the borders for 50,000 economic countryshoppers who have alien cultural values as well as no skillsets we require then we can sure as hell issue working visa's to our neighbours who are actually proven to desperately require our help.

Lenya :

16 Mar 2014 1:01:05am

The shame is on Australia, New Zealand and Britain who jointly established the British Phosphate Company and exploited the Nauruans by mining and exporting millions of tons of phosphate to their countries without as much as consulting the Nauruan owners. Then selling the phosphate to themselves at a miniscule price resulting in their farming industries becoming the exporting power houses of the early 19th century. They kept most of the profits for themselves and only as an after thought shamelessly paid the Nauruans only half a penny per ton for the phosphate. This went on for many decades until Nauru gained Independence and then only after the United Nations pressured the colonialists into letting Nauru gain its freedom. Again Australia, New Zealand and Britain acted shamefully by not allowing Nauru to annex the phosphate industry but to actually pay for it in which the Nauruans paid $20 Million to the 3 colonial powers, an amount which today would be valued at more than a $100 Million. Within ten years of gaining independence and acquiring control of its phosphate industry Nauru warned the 3 colonial powers that they would be taken to the International Court of Justice if they didn't take responsibility for the devastation of the mined out Island including the fact that they dishonestly under-valued the price of the Nauru phosphate and paid Nauru a ridiculously low royalty for decades. Britain and New Zealand at this time declared that Australia alone would be responsible as being the main beneficiary of the phosphate revenue and was also the administrative authority of Nauru. Nauru sued Australia for 3 Billion dollars. With the real threat of facing defeat at the International court, Australia decided to pay an out of court settlement. Unfortunately Australia was able to convince Nauru's leaders to accept a much smaller settlement of 120 Million Dollars. So who really owes who ? All these ignorant commenters who keep putting Nauru down should zip their mouths shut. Some of Nauru's current woes can be blamed on Nauru's poor leadership but much of the bulk of the blame has to go to the 3 colonial powers who in their greed didn't do the right thing by the Nauruans. Nauru could have been a successful story today if these colonial powers had done the right thing and guided the Nauruans from the beginning and helped them transition into their independence and into the 21st century.. Now they are obliged to pick up the pieces and repair what they did in the past.

blue :

28 Sep 2014 6:27:27pm

How about a piece on " How Nauru was raped robbed and dumped by predator capitalists and its people vilified by ongoing actions of corrupt corporations and government? Will we see that any time soon aunty?

Papa O'Malley :

12 Mar 2014 10:12:39pm

Surely the elephant in this report is the viability of Nauru as an independent state. It has a population of 9,000. It relies on Australia and NZ for its basic governance. Independence for such a small population - unless they are fantastically wealthy, Brunei style - is a non-runner. It should be administered as a territory of Australia.

Phil :

13 Mar 2014 10:54:51am

Yes, and even Brunei has a population dramatically larger, with around 300,000. And to keyboardwarrior - alas there is not much in the way of pretty beaches or basic tourist infrastructure to lure resort money to the island. Most of the island is just a denuded moonscape (I've been there five times). Some lovely people though!

Mally :

13 Mar 2014 1:16:55am

How Nauru threw it all away?? WOW. Considering it was Australia who has benefited from phosphate mining and continues to manipulate the island's role in refugee processing, we should really be looking to WHO actually threw it away.

Joe Monterrubio :

I understand that journos who write an article don't typically write the headline or title, but to be frank I don't understand why disingenuous headlines such as this one are tolerated.

Still, misleading clickbait title aside, this is a good piece albeit shallow. Surely there must be much, much more to the situation in Nauru? The stories recently told seem to me to call loudly for some heavyweight investigative follow up.

Come on Aunty, stump up the eight grand for a journalist visa... better yet, do an end run around the Nauru Govt's manipulation and employ a Nauru citizen to do some digging and interview some people. Nothing ventured, nothing gained.

Wake Up :

QC Bob :

Laurence Archer :

13 Mar 2014 12:02:14pm

I agree with the comment about Australia (and others) having thrown it all away. Thuis is a small example of hat could happen to Australia if it becomes too dependent on its mining resources, and allows other resources to wither away. We can see signs of that with the degradation of manufacturing and the potential deggradation of tourism and the services industry. Once our own minerals are exhausted or are no longer valuable, we risk a similar situation. Then someone will write an article "How Australia threw it all away", and someone will suggest that perhaps China threw it all away for us.

Ben :

13 Mar 2014 12:30:42pm

Are we supposed to feel sad for them. They were one of the richest countries. Did they spend their money helping other countries at that time? Did they support refugees by themselves when they were rich? I think not. Now they attempt to blackmail Australia by charging us through the roof for housing a few hundred refugees. Sorry I don't fall for your propaganda. I seems to me this is all about blaming the white guy for everything you can.

Reverend Roger Mwareow :

13 Jun 2014 1:14:20am

I am in agreement to those who wrote about the positive and understanding where the blame should be pointed out. Just look what is happening to our planet, and the many people who are dying every day.a) yes we are supposed to feel sad for the Nauruan people.b) yes the Government have done many compassionate handouts to many neighboring Pacific Islands, including the BPC owned by Britain, Australia and New Zealand.c)No refugees were handed down to Nauru in those times.d)No, Nauru do not attempt to blackmail but to pay for what are needed for these sad people as well as what were owed to Nauru.f) Not blaming the white guy but those who owe so much outstanding debts to Nauru.

sarah :

jusme :

13 Mar 2014 2:51:38pm

I think there's some parallels and lessons for Australia. At least after the multinational corporations suck all the minerals out of this country too, we'll always have farming and grazing to fall back on ... Well, a diminished ability to farm and graze due to increased climate change.

NauruBorn :

12 Jan 2015 2:24:35pm

As a Nauruan, i couldn't believe it myself that this happened to my home island. I've stayed in Fiji since i was seven years old and only visited Nauru during holidays. I know that Nauru has Financial Crisis due to government corruption. My friends and i always debate among ourselves in school for how to my make Nauru better again. As much memory i can memory, Nauru was so beautiful and now that i am twenty years old.. I just couldn't believe my eyes on the condition of Nauru. It looks so crowded ! With the refugees all over the places as well ass expats. Anyways, the first President of Nauru - Hammer DeRobert (RIP), he was a great man and he knew that Nauru will eventually not depend on phosphate so he made investments but unfortunately... all of it were just flushed down the drain due the corruption of the government. That is what i am ashamed of... The government ! Now is what i am hoping for the new President Hon. Baron Waqa to bring back our home.